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high-tech mobile Wi-Fi units. They transformed 24 school
buses into stationary “hotspots” that are parked overnight in
communities throughout the county where Internet access is
not available.
These are just a few examples of schools and communities
coming together to get kids reading.
ELL is another focus for myON. Just 30 miles north of the
wealthy Malibu, California, seaside community, 85 percent
of the students in Oxnard live in poverty. English is a second
language for more than half of those students.
The Oxnard School District sponsored “App-y Hour”
workshops in which teachers and principals shared the
applications they had successfully used on new tablets the
district had provided for every student and teacher. Out of
those discussions, Superintendent Cesar Morales, who
was named a 2017 Education Week Leader to Learn From,
pushed to expand myON in an effort to support ELL in
his district.
Access also is a major problem for some students in the
Goreville School District in deep southern Illinois, prompting
Superintendent Dr. Steve Webb to work with myON to find
a solution.
“We have used MyOn for two years now and they have
opened the door to so many opportunities for our kids.
We are a rural area without a public library and 40 percent
poverty so we teamed up with MyON when we rolled out our
1:1 Technology Initiative to ensure access to thousands of
books that our kids could read on state-of-the-art devices
no matter their income level,” Webb said. “We also provided
open free internet access throughout the school grounds
and parking areas so that they could download books to
their devices 24-by-7 in case they did not have access at
home. Last year alone, our kids read over 11 million words
on myOn! That’s in addition to the school library checkout
system and any private selections they might choose. But,
the best part of the program is that our kids are having fun
learning and that was our goal all along.”
Jordan, who has a Master’s Degree in Psychology with
an emphasis on child development, has seen technology
transform education in her more than a quarter century
of teaching. Going from blackboards to smart boards and
encyclopedias to Wikipedia has happened at a dizzying pace.
She said myON is dedicated to making sure no one gets left
behind when it comes to literacy.
“When I was a teacher, I found that myON was a great way
to connect families with our school,” Jordan said. “By working
on creative solutions to provide literacy access to all kids,
we are connecting schoolchildren to the world through a
personalized program that matches students’ interests and
reading levels to a recommended list curated from the more
than 5,800 enhanced digital books and reading supports that
myON offers.”